Facile fluorination of nitrile-butadiene rubber via olefin cross metathesis

Abstract Fluorination could efficiently improve the comprehensive performance of nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR). Here, a facile approach has been established for the fluorination of NBR via olefin cross metathesis (OCM) technique, with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl acrylate (F13) as the model fluorinating chain transfer agent (F-CTA). The effect of reaction conditions on the fluorination degree (defined as the mass content of F13 in the fluorinated nitrile-butadiene rubber (F-NBR)) has been optimized, such as feeding ratios of F13 and Hoveyda-Grubbs II (HG2) catalyst, and the reaction time. The liquid F-NBR was obtained with fluorination degree of 1.84% at the optimized condition. Additionally, the reaction process was also proposed from the variations in the fluorination degree and molecular weight of the F-NBR products.